The comic strip, Mallard Fillmore, recently depicted Senator Ted Kennedy floating in a Palm Beach pool, thinking to himself: "Life is good... I treat women like dirt, but support feminist causes... And I get away with my extravagant lifestyle by insisting that the middle class do more to help the poor... Wow. Having a ‘social conscience’ sure beats having a personal one..."Of course having a schizophrenic conscience is not restricted to Senator Kennedy. The church sometimes seems to have such. William Willimon has written:

We show a curious split between private and public morality. Stanley Hauerwas has criticized the liberal church for being "public legalists and private antinomians." We couple a laissez-faire attitude toward personal morality with a legalistic, coercive stance on public policy, confidently asserting what ought to be done on all sorts of complex global problems but utterly confused about what to say to two people in a bedroom.

Of course, the religious right often makes the same mistake in the opposite direction. They stress the importance of personal morality and responsibility while talking little about structural evil in society (what the Bible calls "principalities and powers").Tony Campolo has pointed to the same phenomenon:

Sometimes, when I am talking to Christians who are Republicans, I get the sense that they believe that all we need to create a good society is to get individuals ‘saved.’ They seem to simplistically believe that society is nothing more than the sum total of the individuals who make it up...On the other hand, when I talk to Democrats who are Christians, I sometimes get the idea that all we have to do to make things good in America is to create a more just social order. Too often, Democrats convey the simplistic notion that the only reason people do evil is because society sets them up for it. To listen to some Democrats I know is to get the idea that if the government just ensured everyone of adequate housing, decent-paying jobs, and good educational opportunities, all would be well.

I am writing these words just after I have played 18 holes of golf. Monday is not really my day off, but it was just too nice a day to pass up the opportunity. One of my fellow pastors tempted me into doing it. I in turn tempted another pastor to leave his duties and indulge in the game.I don't have much talent for golf, but I have a great talent for tempting others to take off from work and play the game. I find that in temptation a heavy dose of theology works well (Satan also tried this with Jesus). My most effective lines are: "This is the day which the Lord hath made for golf." & "It would be a sin not to play golf on a day like today."I do believe there is some good theology here. There is an old Jewish saying to the effect that on Judgment Day God will hold us each responsible for His good gifts that we did not enjoy. In that sense it would have been a sin not to have played golf today (those of you who really had to work are excused).There is that part of the Christian message which tells us to deny ourselves and take up our crosses. That is certainly a valid part of the biblical message. However, we need to hear the equally valid part of the biblical message that God desires us to enjoy His creation and His good gifts.This is the theme of one of my favorite poems (I don't know the author):

If of thy mortal goods thou art bereft,And from thy slender store two loaves alone to thee are left,Sell one, and with the doleBuy hyacinths to feed thy soul.

If you are ever looking for a golf game, give me a call. My schedule is always flexible.